Story Highlights

TRENTON – Democrats on the panel investigating the George Washington Bridge scandal say they remain eager to hear from former Port Authority Chairman David Samson and other top advisers to Gov. Chris Christie who initially declined to cooperate with the probe.

John Wisniewski, the co-chairman of the New Jersey Legislative Select Committee on Investigation, said the break is because of concern that hearings could interfere with a criminal probe led by the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Paul Fishman.

Wisniewski said special counsel Reid Schar has stayed in contact with Fishman’s office.

“As soon as they declare that our proceedings will not impact their proceeding, I think we’ll be prepared to hear testimony from those who, right now, we cannot hear testimony from,” Wisniewski said. “It’s not a closing bell.”

Potential witnesses who haven’t been called include Christie’s former chief counsel, Charles McKenna, and lead political adviser, Michael DuHaime. But Wisniewski said the committee still has unfinished business from earlier this year with Samson and others.

Attorneys for Samson cited Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination when they rebuffed a committee subpoena for documents in May. Bridget Kelly and Bill Stepien have claimed the same protection. The committee has the option of issuing narrower subpoenas or taking further steps to obtain voluntary cooperation but hasn’t done so yet.

Kelly was Christie’s deputy chief of staff who wrote “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee’’ in an Aug. 13 email. Stepien was Christie’s campaign manager at the time.

Kelly sent her email to David Wildstein, a former Port Authority executive who was hired by a Christie appointee. Wildstein invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify at a meeting of Wisniewski’s committee in January.

Christie spoke briefly about the scandal Wednesday at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference in New York, declaring again that he had no knowledge of plans to affect bridge traffic last September.

He said the definition of a rogue employee is someone “doing something that isn’t acceptable” and focused on Kelly, though he didn’t mention her by name.

“Someone went rogue on my watch. Now listen, I’m accountable for that. And if you haven’t watched what’s been going on the last six months, I think there’s been a decent amount of accountability thrown my way and that I’ve accepted,’’ Christie said.

Christie fired Kelly and had Stepien removed from leadership of his political operation. Wildstein was forced to resign his authority job.

Bob Jordan 609-984-4343, bjordan@app.com

What’s next

The New Jersey Select Committee on Investigation meets at 10 a.m. today in Trenton. Christie administration staffer Regina Egea is scheduled to testify.